Zadie Smith returned to her roots to paint a portrait of northwest London in her fourth novel, NW, which charts the lives of four friends who grow up on a Willesden council estate.
She told the Guardian book club how the different styles of each section were an attempt to shock the reader, echoing the dislocations of moving between London neighbourhoods. She explained how Felix was inspired by Felicité in Gustave Flaubert's Un Coeur Simple, and how she develops her fiction by finding a tone and pursuing it.
Reading list
NW by Zadie Smith (Penguin)
